DeKalb Times

In a Jan. 10 news release on his legislative website, Rep. Jeff Keicher spoke out about the passage of the House Bill, which concerns wind turbines on Jan 10th.

“I argued strenuously against passage of this bill because rural property owners in Illinois deserve to have their rights respected when it comes to siting of wind turbines that affect their land. Wind turbine organizations have a history of not properly disclosing their siting to adjacent property owners and not putting dollars aside for decommissioning. The devastating impact to a homeowner of the long shadow flicker generated by wind turbines from a neighboring property in rural communities cannot be understated. The situation makes it nearly impossible for neighboring landowners to sell their home or their property. This legislation contains no protections for farmers and rural landowners in Illinois,” said Rep. Keicher.

Jeff Keicher was first elected to the Illinois House in 2018. A Republican, their legislative experience includes serving on the Appropriations-Higher Education and Immigration & Human Rights Committee. Keicher is a state representative who resides in DeKalb, according to the Illinois House.

The Center Square also published an article about House Bill 4412. They quoted a local farmer, Leon Corzine, who said "that is the entire job of a county and county boards, is to protect the county and do what is best for the individual counties." The publication also quoted Rep. Avery Bourne and Gov. J.B. Pritzker on the topic.

The Illinois Environmental Council's Executive Director, Jen Walling, praised the passage of this bill: “The General Assembly was proactive in passing HB4412, taking necessary action to defend the economic, equity and climate benefits secured in CEJA by directly confronting counterproductive bans on clean energy. Now our state can continue plugging away at the implementation of CEJA without having to play whack-a-mole every time fossil fuel interests introduce an ordinance intended to delay our clean energy future.”

Keicher's statement on the passage of the bill included a discussion of an inquiry about another bill that would allow the building of wind turbines and placement in Lake Michigan. “Norway, the United Kingdom, Netherlands and many others have proven that the durability, productivity and benefits of offshore wind harvesting are not only more viable but their benefit to aquatic life in the manner of artificial reefs and nurseries are incredibly beneficial from top to bottom. Instead, what we have here is an elitist North Shore Democratic environmentalist agenda that suggests their views of the water are too important to warrant any consideration of placement in Lake Michigan. Instead, these same elitists are pushing removal of local county siting authority because, well, they seem to feel no one important lives in rural Illinois so it won’t impact anyone’s view way out there.”